In present-day concepts for the keeping of livestock, animals are reared and kept from a young age (e.g. as piglets) until they are fully-grown adults (e.g. as sows or boars), in such a way that the animals are kept in the appropriate environment for their respective age and size. This is advantageous for species-appropriate keeping of the animals in the respective age and for healthy livestock, is prescribed by statutory regulations in some countries and is conducive to the growth of the animals. The environmental conditions which are striven for or required in this regard are manifold and depend, inter alia, on the species concerned, on the climate, the country and on husbandry practices.
Critical parameters for the rearing of livestock may include, for example, the characteristics of the floor on which the animals are kept, the type and number of the supply devices, such as feed and liquid uptake devices inside the pen, the ratio of ranging areas on natural ground to the area inside the pen, the design of particular areas such as rest zones, play zones and the like for the animals, as well as broader parameters such as air conditioning parameters, for example temperature, air flow, air changes, or, for example, the size of groups in which animals are collectively kept.
One important factor in concepts for the keeping of growing animals is that of the floor area aimed at for each animal in a pen, in order to ensure a healthy way of keeping the animals, or which must be maintained due to statutory stipulations. For many livestock species, this floor area is made dependent on the size and/or the age and/or the weight of the animals and is typically classified according to certain limit values. One aim in pig rearing, for example, is that the animals have a floor area of 0.15 square meters per animal in the pen when they are in piglet age and weigh between 5 and 10 kg, and that this area is increased according to weight in a series of steps, so that, for example, a floor area of 0.75 square meters per animal is required when they weigh between 50 and 110 kg, with a further increase to 1 square meter per animal being striven for when they exceed 110 kg in weight. Many countries have respective regulations for livestock farming that prescribe these or other limit values that must be complied with by every livestock farmer.
Moving the livestock animals from a first pen section to a second pen section in order to comply with target conditions is known from the prior art. This concept for keeping or rearing livestock allows the first pen area to be designed for young animals, for example by equipping it with appropriate supply devices, play zones and the like, and designing the second, larger pen area accordingly for larger or fully-grown animals.
In this prior art approach to livestock rearing, it is common practice to adapt the first and second pen areas to the size of the animals or to the area that the animals need. In the first pen area, a smaller area per animal than in the second pen area is generally provided, due to the animals being smaller in size and lower in weight. This can help achieve a basically efficient way of using the entire pen area.
In present-day livestock farming, one aim in the case of animals that live in groups is that groups originally formed when the animals are young be recomposed as little as possible in the course of rearing, in order to prevent new hierarchies being formed as a result, and thus to prevent the associated stress to which the animals are exposed. In such cases, one disadvantage of the prior art concept for keeping livestock during rearing, with two or three pen areas for the different size or weight categories of the animals, is that pen areas specifically adapted to the respective group must be kept available in order to adapt to the spatial requirements of the group in the respective growth phase. While it is possible with pens that are subdivided in this way to achieve efficient use of all the pen areas at every moment of the rearing process by systematic pen management in large fattening farms, when animals are continuously reared and kept in the respective age groups, it has been found, however, that this prior art concept for keeping animals often fails to achieve efficient use of the entire pen area, particularly when the aim is to avoid splitting existing groups of animals, and precisely in the case of smaller numbers of animals, and that when larger numbers of animals are involved, such efficient use is not possible in some cases or can only be achieved with substantial planning and repenning effort.
The object of the invention is to allow more efficient use of pen areas in association with present-day concepts for keeping and rearing livestock. According to the invention, this object is achieved by a novel feeding trough apparatus for the animals, said feeding trough apparatus comprising a feeding trough having a trough interior which is accessible to the livestock and which is defined at the bottom and laterally by a bottom wall and side walls, respectively, wherein one of the side walk demarcates the trough interior for an access side from which the animals can take up feed from the trough interior through a trough opening, said side wall on the access side having an upper side wall edge over which an animal's head must reach at least partly so that the animal can take up feed from the trough interior, and a trough frame to which the feeding trough is fixed, said feeding trough apparatus being characterised by an adjustment mechanism for adjusting the height of the side wall edge on the access side relative to the trough frame.